Dr Rodrigo Acuña is an Associate Lecturer in Spanish and Latin American Studies. In 2013 he completed a PhD on Venezuelan foreign policy after having been awarded an Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) by the Federal Government. He has a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Politics and International Relations and Spanish/Latin American Studies from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney, as well as a Diploma in Education from that same institution.

In 2005 he was awarded the Benchmark Prize in Hispanic Studies by UNSW and was a runner-up for the literary competition Open Prose in the Unsweetened 2007 Literary Journal for his first fictional story 'The General's Dreams'. In 2009 he was part of the teaching team of Associate Professor Estela Valverde in Spanish and Latin American Studies that won the 2009 Learning and Teaching Award from the Faculty of Arts at Macquarie University.

With an interest in Latin American films Rodrigo has been a member of several discussion panels at the Sydney Latin American Film Festival. Engaging regularly in academic and community activities, he has presented research papers at various Australian universities and spoken at events held at the Latin American Social Forum in Australia, Movies at Macquarie and the New South Wales Parliament Theatre among others.

Rodrigo's research interests include Inter-American relations, Cold War and Post-Cold War Latin America, Venezuelan history and politics, human rights and development policies from a multidisciplinary perspective. Rodrigo runs his own blog on Latin American politics and he has been interviewed on the ABC’s Radio National Rear Vision program, the ABC's Drive program, ABC Tasmania, SBS Radio (Spanish), Radio Adelaide, 2ser, The Wire and Al Jazeera’s Listening Post program in London.

Emails: rodrigo.acuna@mq.edu.au or rodrigo.indepj@gmail.com

PUBLICATIONS

Book Chapters

Acuña, R. 'Petrocaribe: A project for Development in the Caribbean and Central America?'in Luis Fernando Angosto-Ferrández (ed.), Democracy, Revolution and Geopolitics in Latin America: Venezuela and the International Politics of Discontent (London: Routledge, 2014), pp. 67-86.

Acuña, R. 'America's Backyard: The United States and Latin America from the Monroe Doctrine to the War on Terror', Journal of Iberian and Latin American Research (JILAR), vol. 16, no1 (July 2010), pp. 78-79. (Book review).

Media Publications

Acuña, R. ‘VII Summit Of The Americas: The New York Times Versus Reality’, New Matilda, 23 April 2015.

Acuña R. and Angosto Ferrández, L. F. 'Don't write off Maduro: why Venezuela is not another Ukraine', The Conversation, 24 March 2014.

2014Acuña, R. 'UNASUR: Achievements, Setbacks and the Potential for South American Integration', paper delivered at AILASA 2014 Conference, University of Sydney, 4 July 2014.

Acuña, R. 'Venezuela after Chávez', paper delivered at LATITUDES / Latin American Research Group Australia, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 6 June 2014.

2013Acuña, R. 'Chilean Foreign Policy from Allende to Piñera: Sovereignty, servility and geostrategic complementarity with U.S. power', paper delivered at 40 years is Nothing: History and memory of the 1973 coups d'état in Uruguay and Chile seminar, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 4 October 2013.

2012Acuña, R. 'Petrocaribe: Fostering development in the Caribbean and Central America, or plain old oil diplomacy?', paper delivered at Democracy, revolution and geo-politics in Latin America conference, University of Sydney, 12 October 2012.

2008Acuña, R. 'Venezuela: The new engine for Latin American unity?', paper delivered at the Department of Spanish and Latin American Studies and LAIRS, University of Sydney, 8 October 2008.

Acuña, R. 'Salvador Allende and His Legacy', paper delivered at New South Wales Parliament Theatre, 24 June 2008.

Awards and Scholarships

2009

Australian Post Graduate Award (APA) Scholarship from the Australian Federal Government to complete a doctoral thesis

Learning and Teaching Award for Teaching Excellence Faculty of Arts, Macquarie University

2005

Benchmark Prize in Hispanic StudiesUniversity of New South Wales (Awarded for the highest mark obtained by a student completing a major in history within the Department of Spanish & Latin American Studies)